Reliving his Life
by iluvapplepi
Summary: The demigods are sent from the future to read the books. With more characters on the way, will Zeus be able to control himself not to blast them away? First FanFic! Please read!
1. Prolouge or Chapter One

**On** **Olympus**:

T'was the night of the solstice, when all through the house, all the gods were stirring but there wasn't a mouse.

The Greek gods (not Roman, mind you, they take great offence to that) were up to their usual arguments:

"Mother Rhea always liked you best… Totally unfair!"

"I still don't get why they liked olives so much! The water would've let them farm fish!"

"You jealous I got your wife? Huh? You wanna fight for her?"

"You should eat more cereal Hestia, then maybe you wouldn't have to look like a third grader!"

"No Aphrodite, I will not get a makeover. Now move over so I can shoot Apollo's head!"

"Hey, have you ever heard of the game mahjong? Let's try it out. If we lose we could always escape through the window! Hey! Are you even listening to me?"

"Dionysus, as your step-mother, I command you to sit up while reading, and reading while it's dark isn't good for your eyesight! If you're going to live for many millennia more, you need to take care of your eyes!

There was suddenly a dark swirly vortex and a bright light and abruptly it was gone.

**In the** **Athena** **cabin**:

"Oh Percy, where could you be?"

"Annabeth, it's time for archery pract-? What in the world?"

**Where everybody was gathered at the moment (you know where right?):**

The vortex suddenly spat out six teenagers and a set of five books along with a note.

"Who dares to come in during the most important holiday meeting of the year?"

"Oh stop being so dramatic Zeus; you're going to disturb the children!" Hera exclaimed.

"Please Hera, we don't need any pity from you!" the blond girl said irritated.

"I would watch your mouth girl!" everybody went silent as they watched the scene playing out in front of their eyes.

"Lord Zeus," the raven haired girl said, "why have you called us?"

"I did no such thing" was his answer.

"Stop it now! There is a note, pick it up my dear and hand it over please!" the blond-haired boy walked over and handed the parchment paper to Athena, "it reads:

Dear everybody who is not as awesome as me,

The Fates have decided to send you some books to read, you are not allowed to leave Olympus until you have satisfied this request. There will be people sent in later, and please Zeus, don't harm them, or else the future will be terribly changed for the worse.

Peace out,

Apollo (from the future)"

"So, this is what you use your time for in the future Apollo? Making people read?" Poseidon asked, slightly irritated.

"What's wrong with reading? It builds your variety of vocabulary!" Athena said, mesmerized by the thought of the Olympus Public Library.

"Stop the nonsense guys, introduce yourselves children!" Zeus demanded.

The blond girl stepped up and nodded towards Athena, "Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, architect of Olympus, one of the Seven."

_Why would we need an architect? What seven? _Athena didn't like that she was confused.

"Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, Lieutenant of Artemis" She acknowledged Zeus and Artemis.

"What happened to Zoe? Is she?" Artemis faltered mid-sentence.A moment of silence was given to the fallen huntress.

"Wait; weren't you turned into a pine tree?" Zeus said, proud his daughter was here.

"Uh… I got turned back. What year is this? We're from 2010" she replied. **(A/N: This is because the books in the Heroes of Olympus series are continuous and they don't skip through every year, so I have to count the time in the books, not the real time)**

"2001!" Zeus responded.

"Wow, huge time gap." One of the demigods pointed out. "Well not for us right? We've lived for thousands of years."

"Anyways, I'm Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, but don't kill me because I was born before the pact and hid in the Lotus Casino." The black-haired boy introduced himself as.

"Jason Grace, son of Jupiter-and yes, I am Roman, one of the Seven."

"Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite, one of the Seven."

"Leo Valdez, son of the awesome Hephaestus, one of the Seven."

"Okay, now that we are done the introductions, I think we shall read. The first book is called "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: the Lightning Thief," Athena said opening the book.

Annabeth gasped; shocked that someone would actually write a book about her boyfriend.

"What is it? Oh! Um, yeah, that Percy dude is her boyfriend so don't worry if she starts mumbling to herself because he's 'randomly' gone missing." Thalia explained. At the end, she glanced at Hera.

"Oh, okay then. Let's start!" Athena started to read.


	2. Chapter Two

**Chapter 1: I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher**

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"You think we do Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth mumbled, just loud enough for everybody to hear.

**If your reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: **

"Oh my gods! Take cover! Percy's trying to give advice!" Thalia and Nico shouted.

**close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life. **

"Wait, that's actually pretty good. So let me guess, he's usually not that great at giving advice?" Piper asked curiously.

"Well, that and making decisions. He once blew up Mt. Saint Helens." Annabeth remembered the kiss and blushed a light red.

"Oh…"

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages-if you feel something stirring inside-stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before **_**they**_** sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

"You didn't warn us!" Apollo and Hermes yelled in harmony, Apollo being the god of music of course.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

_So it really is him. My son. _Poseidon thought discreetly.

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"YES!" The trio TNA (A/N: Hey look! Thalia, Nico and Annabeth's initials spelled tna!)

**Yeah. You could say that.**

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan-twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"Oooooh, sounds fun!" Athena suggested and her daughter agreed. Everybody else was shaking their heads silently.

**I know-it sounds like torture. Most Yancy fieldtrips were. Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"Is it Chiron?" Jason asked.

All of a sudden, a bright light flashed and in came Chiron!

"Did someone call me?" He asked, smiling.

They greeted him and explained what was happening and continued reading.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy, was I wrong.**

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that… Well, you get the idea.**

"Why… did… he…. stop!?" Hermes laughed.

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redhead kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

"Wow… I don't think he would like it if he was here. So good thing he's not!" Nico said happily. (The effects of a chocolate bar he found under the couch. But you didn't hear it from me!)

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me by in-school suspension if something bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip. **

"**I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch. **

"**That's it." I started to get up,**

"That's the Percy we know!" Thalia said and Annabeth thought except she replaced the 'we' with 'I'.

**but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

"**You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

"Uh oh."

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye. **

"Dad, doesn't that sound kind of like Alecto?" Nico asked. Hades just shrugged. Poseidon was pale.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

"Yup, now I'm sure that's her," Hades replied.

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

"Of course it did," Annabeth sighed.

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

"Ewwww. Worst experience of my life!" Demeter managed to say and the elder gods, except Zeus, said.

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-"**

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY GOD YOU LITTLE-" Zeus was furious and wanted to zap the book into a million pieces had Hera not calmed him down.

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"**

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

**"-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

**Some snickers from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"Busted!"

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

"I'm pretty sure he does. Don't you?" Chiron nodded.

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

"I don't think I would be able to eat after that." Aphrodite finally said, looking up from her hand mirror.

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

"That's because they _are_ doofuses!" Artemis said.

"You don't mean that little sis." Apollo smirked. She just frowned in response.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go- intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"Older." Chiron and Annabeth both said.

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry; this guy pushed me so hard.**

"It's for the best Percy." Chiron said sadly, remembering all the deaths during the second Titan war.

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life. No-he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school-the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean-I'm not a genius."**

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

"Best thing you could have done." Thalia rolled her eyes.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"Mama's boy!" Ares said.

"Are you saying not to love your mother?" Hera asked, intimidating him.

"No, of course not mother!"

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

"Hey! I can make that someday!" Leo said.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends-I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists-and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

"Oh my! That is just… ew…" Aphrodite repulsively said.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

"Care to explain brother?" Hades asked walking towards him the same time Zeus roared "POSEIDON!"

"Okay, I admit it, I broke the oath but so did the both of you." He reasoned and the brothers sat down. still fuming.

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-"**

**"-the water-"**

**"-like it grabbed her-"**

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey-"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But-"**

**"You-will-stay-here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

**I said, "I'll-I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

"Course you don't Seaweed Brain." Annabeth mumbled to herself.

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"Typical Percy," Thalia explained.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

"What good is a pen?" Jason asked, tempted to flip his coin.

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

"Finally, some action!" Ares said.

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword-Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

"And that, little bro, is the benefits of that ballpoint pen." Thalia said knowingly.

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

"How does that come naturally?" Athena asked. Poseidon just smirked.

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!**

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

"Actually, it was the mist," Annabeth corrected.

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

**I said, "Who?"**

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"Wait, wait, wait, Annabeth, at the beginning you said you were dating the Percy in the book and now, Poseidon admitted to being the father so that means…" Athena slowly realized.

"Yea mom, I'm dating the son of Poseidon," Annabeth replied.

"Oh… well break up with him!" Athena said.

"No mom, he's thousands of miles away, how am I supposed to?" She ran out of the throne room sobbing.

"I'll go check on her, you guys continue," Thalia said.

"I'll read!" Nico said, still hyper from the chocolate rush.


	3. Chapter Three

******Hey! I finally learned how to do this horizontal line thing! Thanks everybody for reading my story so far, I know I'm an inexperienced writer but I'll learn and it would really help if you could post constructive criticism in your reviews! Thanks and may I present to you the third chapter of Reliving his Life where they read the second chapter in TLT!**

* * *

**Chapter 2 Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death**

"The socks of death?" Leo asked, "Is that like related to the Pants of Love or something?"

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. **

"Puh-lease, like the entire school would trick a little puny mortal kid like you!" Dionysus snorted behind his wine magazine.

TNA just rolled their eyes, _if only he knew._ (Annabeth had already returned but her eyes just rimmed with red).

**The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr-a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip-had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas. **

"The Mist," Athena said knowingly.

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho. **

**It got so I almost believed them-Mrs. Dodds had never existed. **

"Lemme guess, hmmm, could it be a certain satyr who lacks of the ability to lie?" Thalia asked mockingly.

**But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying. **

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum. **

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat. **

"Oh, demigod dreams, ew hate them!" Piper said.

"Take this from someone experienced," Annabeth said, "It does NOT get any better, but I think Percy's are the worst."

"So he's been telling you about his dreams?" Nico asked teasingly, "Were you in any of them? And don't lie 'cause Apollo is here."

"Yes," she muttered, face as red as the Ares cabin walls.

"She's telling the truth!" the god of music exclaimed. Annabeth just turned redder while everyone laughed and Aphrodite squealed.

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year. **

"Wow… what has gotten into dad and Uncle P?" Hermes asked, looking up from his phone.

"You'll see," Annabeth answered mysteriously.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class. **

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. You see Annabeth? He's not good enough for you!" Athena tried convincing her daughter.

"If you just tried to get to know him and be more patient, Mom, you know that he's an amazing person and he makes me feel loved, he actually likes me for me and he doesn't judge me by my heritage, because you and Poseidon don't get along, but by my merits. I love him Mom, why can't you just accept the fact that I just can't live to love anyone else?" Annabeth sobbed, the tears streaming down her face.

"Actually, I am fine that you are dating my son Annabeth, and judging from the way you reacted, you seem to really like him, so I accept your relationship." Poseidon chuckled, _ah young love._

"Thank you Lord Poseidon, at least someone understands."

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good. **

"Hey Dionysus, you and this teacher dude are related!" Apollo laughed.

"How do you know what an old sot means, Apollo?" Artemis asked, confused.

"Oh, I have a dictionary app on my iPod, see?" he showed his screen to everybody.

"Boys," Artemis shook her head.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy. **

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine. **

**I was homesick. **

"Wimp," Ares said and immediately he was drenched in water.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me. **

**I'd miss Latin class, too-Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well. **

"You can do well Percy, and you did do well." Chiron said wisely.

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him. **

Nico interrupted his reading to say, "Yea, you should believe him, but you still don't believe me after the Styx incident."

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. **

"See Annabeth? He misuses school equipment, that's not the proper way to do things!" Athena felt remorse on what she said earlier but still trying to convince her daughter otherwise.

"He'll come through, he always does." Annabeth still wasn't giving in.

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it. **

"That's easy for me, well I guess because I'm Roman and all…" Jason said, almost nervously.

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt. **

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson. **

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book. **

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

"See?" she said, _wow, never thought I'd win my MOM the goddess of wisdom in an argument-ish._

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor. **

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "... worried about Percy, sir." **

**I froze. **

"Quick kid, hide! Don't let them see or hear you!" Hermes was suddenly more intrigued on the book than he was texting his latest girlfriend.

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult. **

**I inched closer. **

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too-" **

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more." **

"Yea… a lot more! Once I saw him carrying around a teddy bear!" Thalia snickered.

"Hey! He gave me that for our two month anniversary!" Annabeth recoiled.

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline- " **

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can." **

**"Sir, he saw her..." **

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean." **

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall-" **

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud. **

"Oh come on Percy! You could've done better than that!" Hermes said.

**Mr. Brunner went silent. **

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall. **

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow. **

"Whoops! Probably shouldn't be carrying that around, might have given that boy a heart attack seeing a centaur with a bow and arrow!" Chiron said sheepishly.

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside. **

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on. **

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck. **

"That must have scared the Hades out of him, archer's bow, clip-clop sounds and sniffing of a door?" Annabeth exclaimed.

Hades scowled when his name was used as slang.

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice." **

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow." **

**"Don't remind me." **

"Must be terrible, taking exams every single year." Nico said, after stopping his own reading.

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office. **

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever. **

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm. **

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night. **

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?" **

**I didn't answer. **

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?" **

**"Just... tired." **

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed. **

"But they can read your emotions, so it's no use." The voice came from behind the wine magazine.

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing. **

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside. **

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem. **

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best." **

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. **

"Oh, I could never say these things without embarrassing them, I can't be too blunt and they don't understand when I talk in codes." Chiron sighed.

"Don't worry Chiron, he doesn't take it personally." Annabeth said; he was after all like a second father to her.

**Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips. **

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir." **

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time." **

**My eyes stung. **

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out. **

**"Right," I said, trembling. **

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be-"**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

**"Percy-" **

**But I was already gone. **

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase. **

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies. **

"Ha! Are the Olympians nobodies? Maybe your father, you delinquent, but not me! Your almighty uncle, the King of the Skies!" Zeus shouted loud and clear, he even added a bolt of lightning in the background for dramatic effect.

Everybody just rolled their eyes at how he was acting.

_The god of theatre. _

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city. **

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall. **

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool." **

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed. **

"That's not nice." Hestia said, surprising everyone since they forgot she was there.

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city. **

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound. **

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore. **

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?" **

"You're going to scare the life outta him!" Thalia said.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha-what do you mean?" **

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam. **

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?" **

**"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?" **

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers ..." **

"Ha! Demon math teachers…" Apollo laughed.

**"Grover-" **

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..." **

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar." **

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer. **

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes,**

"Why would you make the card a fancy font? It should be white on black, that helps? Make sure you see that it happens, Dionysus." Zeus demanded.

"Yes father." Dionysus muttered, _oh great more work._

**but I finally made out something like: **

**Grover Underwood **

**Keeper **

**Half-Blood Hill **

**Long Island, New York **

**(800) 009-0009 **

**"What's Half-" **

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address." **

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion." **

**He nodded. "Or ... or if you need me." **

**"Why would I need you?" **

"Ooooh… harsh."

**It came out harsher than I meant it to. **

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you." **

**I stared at him. **

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me. **

**"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?" **

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway. **

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else. **

"Oh great, now even a bigger chance of my son getting killed by monsters." Poseidon turned paler.

**We were on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen. **

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn. **

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses. **

"Uh oh, do you think they are…." Poseidon asked getting paler by each sentenced that described the old ladies.

"Yup!"

"Oh dear."

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me. **

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching. **

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man-" **

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?" **

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?" **

By this time, Poseidon started to hyperventilate and melting into….. a puddle?

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all." **

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on." **

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there." **

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back. **

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. **

"Um… What happened to Lord Poseidon?" Thalia asked watching the little puddle in the middle of the fisherman's chair.

"Oh nothing, sometimes he just gets too much energy good and bad and he slowly melts away, it prevents him from going back to his true form where it would kill you all. He'll be back a bit later." Hades said nonchalantly.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for-Sasquatch or Godzilla. **

"Ha! Imagine Godzilla wearing them, while stomping around the city." Hermes said.

That made a weird mental image in everyone's head and they chuckled.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life. **

**The passengers cheered. **

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!" **

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu. **

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering. **

**"Grover?" **

**"Yeah?" **

**"What are you not telling me?"**

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?" **

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?" **

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. **

"They are."

"Mom! I don't think that's going to help Lord Poseidon in the condition that he's in!" Annabeth said.

**He said, "Just tell me what you saw." **

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn." **

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost-older. **

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord." **

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal. **

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time." **

**"What last time?" **

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth." **

"Oh yeah… I was in the sixth grade when I got turned into a tree!" Thalia noticed.

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?" **

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

"Paranoid!" Nico sang.

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could. **

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked. **

**No answer. **

**"Grover-that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?" **

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin. **

"Oh gods." Poseidon said, back in his solid form.

"I'll read next." Annabeth said.

* * *

Thanks for reading! Review and tell me what you think!


	4. Chapter Four

**Sorry for the wait, was too lazy(like always) to update. Sue me for being a teen! **

**I don't know if we have to have one but I've seen other authors include it so I guess I will too.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the bold letters/words whatever. Everything belongs to Rick Riordan except for my awesome Leo/Nico/Apollo/Thalia comebacks.:)**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Before Annabeth had a chance to start reading, another bright light appeared and a boy with a blue baseball cap to cover what was underneath, a hoodie and jeans tumbled out.

"Where am I? Oh! Well there you guys are! I've been looking everywhere for you!" Grover exclaimed, not paying attention to the gods who were not so patiently waiting (Zeus).

"Grover," Annabeth said motioning her head towards the gods sitting on the opposite side of the room.

"Huh? What?-OH! Sorry Lord Zeus, Lady Hera, Lord Poseidon, Lady Demeter, Lord Hephaestus, Lady Athena, Lord Hermes, Lady Artemis, Lord Apollo, Lady Aphrodite, Lord Dionysus and Lord Ares! I am so so so sorry!"

Some of the guys chuckled despite Zeus's glare and they explained to the poor, frightened satyr their occurrence in the throne room and they continued reading.

**Chapter 3: Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants**

"Of course the second I come in I have to be embarrassed twice!" said person said melodramatically, raising his hands to the sky and a flash of lightning (courtesy of Zeus) caused him to sit back down quickly.

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal. **

"Thanks a lot buddy."

**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to be sixth grade?"**

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. **

"Okay, okay, you can stop laughing now… how would you feel if you know your friend was in mortal danger?"

"Well, I don't think that I would pee my pants if I saw Hermes here getting pounded, you know?" Apollo tried to reason, he got slapped upside the head for his efforts.

**Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

**"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

"He he he! You thinking what I'm thinking, Apollo?"

"Don't you even dare! Sally is the nicest person in the world! It would be completely unfair if she were to be pranked." Annabeth threatened.

"Oh come on Annie, you just want her to be there for your wedding." Thalia joked.

This brought a round of laughter and blush to creep up upon Annabeth's face.

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck. Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

"Aww! That could be like the perfect love story! So cuu-ute!" Aphrodite fan-girl giggled and squealed.

"I think I told you this before but you and your mom are nothing alike." Jason whispered to Piper and she nodded in agreement.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

"Nice, lying without actually lying. Tell your future mom-in-law she's pretty good at lying. And Uncle P, nice choice." Apollo winked at Annabeth and gave Poseidon a thumbs up.

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts. **"Ewwww…" said the female population.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example. **

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet. **

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home." **

**"Where's my mom?" **

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?" **

**That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months? **

"WHAT?!" This time Poseidon didn't turn into a puddle, but the air around him was slowly picking up speed. 5 miles per hour was the speed they were blowing.

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something. **

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, **10 miles per hour **and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. **20 miles **He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out. **30.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him. **

**He raised a greasy eyebrow. **

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else. **

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?" **

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here." **Lowered to 25.

**"Am I right?" Gabe repeated. **

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony. **

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose." **

**"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!" **45/ph

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer. **55.

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home. **

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn. **

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic-how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone-something-was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons. **

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?" **

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted. **

"AWW! That's so cute!" The Poseidon hurricane was just about to destroy everyone and everything in Olympus but calmed down immediately at the mention of Sally.

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe. **

"That is almost impossible. That pig! Taking advantage of Sally." Poseidon's winds increased speed.

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!" **

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home. **

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her. **"Mama's boy" Ares coughed out not so subtly.

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally-how about some bean dip, huh?" **

**I gritted my teeth. **So did Percy's dad.

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, **

"Or, an Olympian god." Hermes smirked.

**not to some jerk like Gabe. **

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad. **

**Until that trip to the museum ... **

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?" **

**"No, Mom." **

**I felt bad lying. **

"You should never lie to your mother!" Hera said, pointedly at Ares.

**I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid. **

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me. **

**"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?" **

Poseidon smiled and when Hestia noticed this, she asked "Why are you smiling brother?"

"Montauk is where I met Sally."

"That's so cute!"

**"Three nights-same cabin." **

**"When?" **

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed." **

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money. **

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?" **

**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here. **

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip." **

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?" **

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go." **

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your stepfather is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works." **

"Ah bribery. Sweet sweet bribery." Hermes stared above his right shoulder like there was a thought bubble floating there with a picture of that time he got candy from blackmail.

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

"What? You can't put a budget on clothes!" Aphrodite said, completely shocked.

**"Yes, honey," my mother said. **

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back." **

**"We'll be very careful." **

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game." **

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week. **

_Hey, that's actually a good idea for the Fields of Punishment. _Hades thought.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad. **

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought? **

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now." **

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement. **

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided. **

"If he actually had a brain the size of a pea, he would be able to detect that it was sarcasm." Athena scoffed.

**He went back to his game.**

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?" **

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes-the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride-as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air. **

"Spooky," Apollo pointed out.

"Boys," Artemis sighed.

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip. **

**An hour later we were ready to leave. **

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking-and more important, his '78 Camaro-for the whole weekend. **

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch." **

"Like he's gonna drive, he's twelve, and even now he's a terrible driver." Annabeth mentioned.

"Or maybe you guys were preoccupied when he drives… if you know what I'm saying here," Thalia winked causing Annabeth to blush 5 shades of red in 2 seconds.

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me. **

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon. **

"Wow…"

"Stupid…"

**Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out. **

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in. **

**I loved the place. **

"Couldn't he just control the temperature of the water with his powers then?" Nico asked stupidly.

"He didn't know about his powers then…" "Oh yea," he replied sheepishly.

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad. **

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea. **

"That was something I always loved about her, we were by the sea a lot and those eyes got me so mesmerized." Poseidon sighed happily.

"Eeeep! That's so romantic!" Aphrodite fan-girl squealed.

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work. **

**I guess I should explain the blue food. **

"Yes you should." Apollo said while Dionysus simultaneously said "Please no!"

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This-along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano-was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me. **

"A real special one you've got," "I don't have her anymore…"

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk-my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them. **

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. **

"Pah!" Zeus exclaimed.

**But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes." **

"Wow, she fell for you hard." Hades looked up and said. _I miss Maria._

"That's hard to believe, what did you do to her to make her love you, Fish Face. Some love potion like the one with Medusa?" Athena said angrily.

"Harsh." Apollo pointed out.

"Yah. Very harsh." Poseidon confirmed and turned invisible to sob silently.

"Aw, did I hurt Kelp Brains feelwings? Does he need his stuffed dolphin? You all know he's faking right?" she looked at everyone else and received disapproving looks.

"Mom, that's seriously just messed up." Annabeth was reminded of the time in TLT when she offended Percy on the train. She shook her head at the memory, it was the first time that they agreed to work together.

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud." **

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years. **

"Typical Percy," Nico said.

"It is? Even I don't do that bad in school, and I'm me!" Leo joked.

"And how much I wish you weren't you Repair Boy." Piper sighed exasperatedly.

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?" **

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin." **

**"But... he knew me as a baby." **

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born." **

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile. **

"When I visited him while Sally was asleep." Poseidon said in his invisible form.

"Hey, Fish Face, you want to talk after this chapter?" Athena asked softly.

"Sure," Athena couldn't see it, but she was sure she heard him smiled, and she is never ever wrong, well for educational and obvious things. But feelings? Just as confused as the next goddess, which happened to be Artemis. And she does have problems controlling her hate for men, except for Orion. So yea, problems with feelings.

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me ...**

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. **

"Don't be mad son. Be mad at your Uncle Zeus for creating that stupid law." Poseidon looked at Zeus.

"He isn't now Poseidon, so don't be offended if he sounds angry later in the books."

"Thanks Annabeth."

**He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe. **

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?" **

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire. **

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something." **

**"Because you don't want me around?" I regretted the words as soon as they were out. **

"He never knew what he was saying until the words came out." Annabeth laughed softly thinking, _what am I going to do with that Seaweed Brain?_

"I can relate to how that feels," Piper said looking subtly at Jason, a look that did not go unnoticed by Annabeth who smiled sadly.

Jason, who thought the look was a cue for him to say something said, "Yea Leo, you should really watch what you say some times."

Annabeth face palmed and Leo looked up from his tinkering and mouthed, _wha?_

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I-I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away." **

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said-that it was best for me to leave Yancy. **

**"Because I'm not normal," I said. **

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe." **

**"Safe from what?" **

"Clueless Percy," Nico said.

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me-all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

**Before that-a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

"Wow…. So Percy used to be chubby?" Leo asked.

Piper face palmed.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy-the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."**

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad-who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born- talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

"Now I kind of understand why he would be confused," Grover said sympathetically.

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I-I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..." **

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry. **

**That night I had a vivid dream. **

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse **

"Probably me," Poseidon said

**and a golden eagle,**

"Most likely me," Zeus said

**were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. **

"Why are you two fighting? Again?" Demeter asked. "Cereal should help that problem! Here you go, eat up! Or else…" Zeus and Poseidon gulped.

**As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder. **

The gods and JPL (Jason, Piper, Leo) looked at Hades, "As much as I don't like them, I wouldn't encourage them to fight. The storms bring a lot of chaos to my realm."

They were pretty confused.

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No! **

**I woke with a start. **

"Ha! Looks like I win!" Zeus bragged. "The dream wasn't even over yet, I could have still won." Poseidon countered. "Sore loser," Zeus coughed not so subtly and stuck out his tongue.

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery. **

"Wow, Uncle P sure sounds mad to me." Apollo said and Leo nodded.

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane." **

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. **

"You hear that Poseidon? You've forgotten… hehe," Nico said (he found _another _chocolate bar).

**Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end. **

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice-someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock. **

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover. **

"How exactly?" Jason asked.

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?" **

**My mother looked at me in terror-not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come. **

"Why would she be scared of me? I'm not scary, right?" Grover asked.

No one answered him.

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?" **

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing. **

**"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?" **

"I should've expected him not to," Grover smiled slightly and shook his head.

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on-and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be ... **

"Finish the thought! You're killing me with the suspense." Leo threw his hands up in the air.

"You've met Grover before and he's right here! He's a satyr! Where his legs are hooves, okay?" Piper fell back on the couch tired of explaining every single thing to Leo.

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!" **

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning. **

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

**Grover ran for the Camaro-but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked. **

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves. **

"Oh… That makes sense…" Leo said happily cheerful, "Can we eat now? We were supposed to have dinner now back at camp."

"Sure… we can picnic here." Hestia smiled warmly. A picnic blanket big enough for the Olympians in normal size and teenagers and Chiron (in wheelchair form) to sit, appeared.

Just then, a flash of light appeared. "Huh? Where am I?"

* * *

**Ha ha... a cliffie... **

**Tell me in your reviews who you would want it to be, but try to refrain from saying 'Percy' cuz i know you are all thinking it... I want him to come in later that would make it seem more dramatic. PM me if you have ideas! Review, Follow, Favourite! (Wow that reminds me of the things people say on youtube "Rate, Comment, Subscribe:)) **

**K, I'm off topic (as always). Bye!**


	5. Chapter Five

Chapter 5! Sorry for the wait!

Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan and I do not own anything, except some Sprite and a cute top that I got last week!;)

* * *

"Hello? Brother, is that you? Annabeth! Where am I? I was looking for Percy and-and- where am I? Oh, I remember! I got a new stick here!" The young Cyclops took out his club that was given to him as a reward after leading the Cyclopes into battle.

"Tyson? What are you doing here big guy?" Grover asked. Tyson and Grover would occasionally go out on missions to look for Percy and have overgrown their awkward fears of each other.

"I was looking for Percy… and I suddenly appeared here?" Tyson looked around the room to find the gods all sitting there looking at him in partial awe of how he was associated with the demigods considering that Cyclopes liked to eat them… Let's just say that they were worried.

"Oh, you're in the throne room, and we are here reading the books that were apparently written about Percy… Lords and Ladies, this is Tyson, Percy's half-brother." Annabeth introduced the young and confused Tyson to the gods in the room.

"Well, sit down dear, we were just about to have a picnic," Hestia welcomed them to sit down while Poseidon and Athena walked out of the room.

* * *

"Listen Poseidon, I'm sorry about the mean comments, it's just that when the book started to talk about you and Sally I just got this voice that was making me so so mad and I didn't know why but I just started to say some pretty mean stuff but… I just want to say that I am so sorry about that. And also about the comments on Medusa, I know she was the one who made you drink the love potion but again so sorry, I know you won't be able to forgive me but I hope that you would just mmph-"

Poseidon had silenced her with a sweet gentle kiss that melted Athena's brain and turned her heart to mush.

"Don't talk," he whispered in her ear, sending shivers all through her body.

"Meh, uhh… dah… yea…" Athena stuttered over her words which never happens and she blushed crimson. "M-hahaha?!" Athena gushed and giggled.

"C'mon, let's go back," Poseidon winked and they walked back hand in hand.

* * *

Meanwhile…

Everyone was having their own conversations at the same time but they all noticed when Athena and Poseidon walked in with either a smirk on his face or a faint but visible blush still on her cheeks. They all had questioning looks but otherwise didn't say anything to acknowledge the soon to be couple.

They finished eating and Thalia volunteered to read.

* * *

I was too lazy to continue to reading from there but I'll try...


	6. Chapter 6

**So, *dodges tomatoes and flaming books (LEO! How dare you? Don't touch my books)*I'm sorry. But I have kinda lost interest with the story... might be up for grabs if anyone wants it... I started out think 'Awesome!' then went to 'Eww...' to 'agh!'. So, if anyone? Going once, twice, no Leo, you cannot get it because I know you don't like to write... dyslexia remember? Uh huh, course you were joking... **

**Anyways just PM me or something if you are interested... **

**Disclaimer: I don't own this at all, giving away the rights too!**

* * *

**Chapter 4: My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting**

"Dang it! I wish my mom taught how to fight bulls! That's a Spanish thing right?" Leo questioned.

Annabeth (of course, who else?) answered first, "Well, bullfighting is traditional in Spain, Portugal, southern France and some Hispanic American countries like Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru. The sport consists of luring or baiting the bull and killing-"

"Okay! It was a simple one word answer, you could have just said 'yes'." Leo paled visibly, suddenly scared of the sport he was so interested before .

**We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the windshield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas. **

**Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants. But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo- lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal. **

"Wow… Thanks buddy," Grover complained.

**All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom... know each other?" **

"Great way to start the conversation, just great." Nico shook his head.

"He has just realized his best friend was a goat for gods sakes." Annabeth defended. (Your welcome allen r)

**Graver's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you." **

"Whoa, freaky," the lights were suddenly turned off and Leo illuminated his face with a flame out of his hand, trying to look ominous.

The flame suddenly was pushed towards his face and his hair caught on fire.

"Holy Hephaestus!"

"Continue please," Piper smirked and gestured toward Thalia.

**"Watching me?" **

**"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend." **

**"Urn ... what are you, exactly?" **

**"That doesn't matter right now." **

**"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey-" **

"Oh, he went there!" Nico tsked.

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!" **

**I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat. **

**"Goat!" he cried. **

**"What?" **

Cue chuckles from the guys.

**"I'm a goat from the waist down." **

**"You just said it didn't matter." **

**"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!" **

**"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr. Brunner's myths?" **

**"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?" **

**"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!" **

**"Of course." **

**"Then why-" **

**"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. **

"C'mon Grover, you knew that he's slow… You should have explained it further" Annabeth was miffed.

**"We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are." **

**"Who I-wait a minute, what do you mean?" **

**The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

**"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety." **

**"Safety from what? Who's after me?" **

**"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions." **

**"Grover!" **

"Great going…"

**"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?" **

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird. **

"Psh, yea right…" Nico scoffed. Annabeth glared while he stuck his tongue out. (A/N: Please ignore this Annaco moment.)

**My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences. **

**"Where are we going?" I asked. **

**"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you." **

**"The place you didn't want me to go." **

**"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."**

**"Because some old ladies cut yarn." **

"Even I don't have anything to defend him with…" Annabeth shook her head.

**"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means-the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die." **

**"Whoa. You said 'you.'" **

**"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'" **

**"You meant 'you.' As in me." **

**"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you." **

"'Cause that totally makes sense that you, I mean 'someone' would say that…" Leo rolled his eyes.

**"Boys!" my mom said. **

**She ****pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid-a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm. **

**"What was that?" I asked. **

**"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please." **

**I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive. **"Please. Please. Please." They all chanted.

**Outside, nothing but rain and darkness-the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me. **

"Funny how you realize that before you are about to get killed-again. But you didn't hear that from me Lord Poseidon." Nico added hastily.

**Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded. **

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time. **

**I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow." **

**"Percy!" my mom shouted. **

**"I'm okay... ."**

**I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. **

"Consider yourself lucky that they didn't die or else war would have been placed upon us, Brother." Poseidon said as the overprotective father.

**We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in. **

**Lightning. That was the only explanation. **"Holy sh** don't hurt me!" Zeus screamed. Not-so-muffled laughs were heard among everyone.

**We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!" **

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die! **

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

Grover blushed.

**"Percy," my mother said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered. **

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket **"A blanket?"**over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns. **

**I swallowed hard. "Who is-" **

**"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car." **

**My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking. **

"How are they gonna get out now?" Tyson asked Annabeth. "Don't worry, Percy is a smart cookie," this earned many snickers from some, "he'll find his way out."

**"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy-you have to run. Do you see that big tree?" **

**"What?" **

**Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill. **

**"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door." **

**"Mom, you're coming too." **

**Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean. **"Aww!"

**"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover." **

**"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder. **

**The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands-huge meaty hands-were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like horns ... **"Were horns! Oh!" Leo exclaimed. Piper face-palmed. And Jason thought 'wow… he fought the Minotaur?'

**"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line." **

**"But..." **

**"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please." **

**I got mad, then-mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull. **"No ships Sherlock," Thalia punned.

**I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom." **

**"I told you-" **

**"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover." **

"Such a sweet thing." Aphrodite cooed.

**I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.**

"What's that supposed to mean?" Grover hmphed.

**Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass. **

**Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine-bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear-I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms **"Oh my gods! He's running away from the Minotaur and he has time to joke about undergarment?" Poseidon shook his head at his son's antics.**-which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders. **

**His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns-enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener. **"See what I mean?" "Yes, Poseidon, we know what you mean…" "Oh I wouldn't act so snooty Athena, remember, I have something on you!" The conversation was overheard by everyone though nobody knew what they meant except for Aphrodite who had a faint suspicion of what happened.

**I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real. **

"Who? Who?" Leo was on his seat with the last inch of his butt, looked like he wanted to pee if you asked me…

**I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's-"**

**"Pasiphae's son," my mother said. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you." **

**"But he's the Min-" **"The AGONY!"

**"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power." **

**The pine tree was still way too far-a hundred yards uphill at least. **

**I glanced behind me again.**

**The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows-or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away. **

**"Food?" Grover moaned. **"Don't even dare."

**"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?" **

**"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough." **

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.**

**Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying. **

**Oops. **

"ADHD has it's perks…" Aphrodite mused.

"Of giving you battle field reflexes?" Piper questioned. "Nope, seeing the super cute side of Percy!"

"Is it me, or is your mom trying to flirt with my boyfriend that isn't even here?" Annabeth leaned over to Piper. *Shrugs and sighs and shakes head* "I really don't know…"

**"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way- directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?" **

**"How do you know all this?" **

**"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me." **

**"Keeping me near you? But-"**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill. **

**He'd smelled us. **

**The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter. **

"Thank you. You just ruined me…" "Oh quit being so dramatic G-man."

**The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us. **

**My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said." **

**I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right-it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.**

**He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest. **Gasps were heard through Olympus.

**The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side. **

**The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass. **

**We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.**

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover. **

**"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!" **"Oh Sally," Annabeth gasped.

**But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air. **

**"Mom!" **

**She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!" **Everybody had to admit that they had tears in their eyes, even Ares… though he might not admit it…

**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply ... gone. **

**"No!"**

**Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs-the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons. **

**The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too. **

**I couldn't allow that. **

"I guess that makes up for the fat jokes…" Grover thought out loud he blushed too..

**I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

**"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!" **

"Congratulations! You've just won the award for worst insults of the year! Come up and receive your prize!" Leo announced.

"He isn't here you blasted hammer! (I really shouldn't swear here so I put this in instead…) he is in danger in who knows where! He's disappeared and possibly thousands of miles away! Why do you ALL have to treat him like this? Don't you know what he's been through? Why… why him? Why not me?" Annabeth sobbed.

"Did she call me a blasted hammer?" Leo asked, very confused. Of course, he got a slap upside the head.

**"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists. **

**I had an idea-a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all. I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment. **

**But it didn't happen like that. **

**The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge. **

**Time slowed down. **

**My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck. **

**How did I do that? **"How did he do that?" Jason asked. "There are a lot of things you don't know about him." Annabeth smiled sadly.

**I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out. **

**The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils. **

**The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.**

**Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off. **

**"Food!" Grover moaned. **"And of course, I almost get my best friend killed again while-as a bonus- almost killing myself too!" Grover face palmed.

**The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might. **"Keep dreaming runt," Ares chuckled. Grover and Annabeth exchanged amused looks, Ah, if only he knew…"**The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then-snap! **

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife. **

**The monster charged. **

**Without****thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage. **

**The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate-not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart. **

**The monster was gone. **Ares had his mouth hanging open so wide, it gave a perfect target for Artemis. He screamed in agony, "Whoops, I wasn't even aiming there…"

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover-I wasn't going to let him go.**

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's. **"Ooooooooh! He's had a crush on you all this time!"

**They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be." **

**"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside." **

Annabeth, still blushing turned towards Grover and stuffed the book in his hands to try and turn the attention away from her-unsuccessfully of course.

When a bright light appeared, Annabeth was thankful, not only because it took the attention away from her, but also because it was-

"Percy? Is that really you?"

* * *

**Your welcome to whoever is going to take this story because I gave you an amazing place to continue from... Review please! Even if it says "i hate you" it still counts as a review! Au revoir!**


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